Bettina Allamoda

(b. 1964 in Chicago). Artist. Lives and works in Berlin. She does not restricther work to her own production as an artist but is also active as a curator, author, and editor. The point of departure for her work is the analysis and revelation of hidden politics of visibility inscribed in the surfaces of popular culture phenomena such as fashion, art, architecture, and design. Performance, collage, sculpture, andvideo serve her as the tools of an artistic practice with history, archaeology, and documentation as its themes. 1996: les artistes décorateurs (Munich: Kunstraum München); 2001: Cit. Internationale des Arts Paris; 2001–3: ready to wear/colonial; 2003 model map – Kartographie einer Architektur, Haus des Lehrers Berlin, Revolver Verlag; 2005: Zur Vorstellung des Terrors: Die RAF Ausstellung (Berlin: KW Berlin); 2007: Shake Your Money Maker (Berlin: B. Thumm Galerie); 2010: Catwalk to History: A Sourcebook (Frankfurt: Revolver); Harald Fricke: Texte, 1990–2007 (Berlin: Merve); 2011–12: Study-abroad scholarship from the Berliner Kultursenat and visiting professorship at the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena.

Fabian Bechtle
(b. 1980). Visual artist. Lives and works in Berlin. Studied at the Hochschule fürGrafik und Buchkunst (HGB), Leipzig, and the École nationale des beaux-arts in Lyon (F). 2011: Master student of Professor Joachim Blank (HGB). Solo exhibitions and group exhibitions in Germany and abroad include the PACT Zollverein, Essen; Goethe-Institut, Rome; Senatsreservenspeicher Berlin; Galerie der Künstler, Munich; and the Bonner Kunstverein. Fabian Bechtle is currently on a DAAD scholarship inBelgrade, Serbia. 

Tekle Belete

(b. 1928 Ethiopian calendar; b. 1936 European calendar). Photographer. All his lifeBelete has been a tireless photographer of the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. In 1960 (European calendar), for example, he documented the imperial rule of Haile Selassie and the official board members of the Organization for African Unity (OAU). He followed the Ethiopian revolution, the civil war, and the military regime of the 1970s and 1980s, and also documented the military dictatorship under Mengistu Haile Mariam and the progressive urban planning measures of the Haile Selassie era. He has presented the transformation of the city of Addis Ababa in exhibitions as well as the city’s newspapers and magazines, such as Zena Mazegavabet, Kenema lisan, and Addisababachin.

Peter Herbert Beyer

(b. 1933). Designer. Beyer studied at the Leipziger Kunstgewerbeschule with Max Schwimmer and later at the Burg Giebichenstein in Halle with Willi Sitte. He was a member of the Verband Bildender Künstler, a lecturer in Heiligendamm, and a guest lecturer inGothenburg, Sweden, and he received a design prize for his lifework as early as 1982. Alongside his activity as an architect, Peter Beyer was a lighting planner at NARVA Berlin from 1981 until the end of the GDR. His projects include large hotels in Sweden, Moscow, and Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), a concert hall in Azerbaijan, and Interhotels in Berlin, Leipzig, and Weimar. Beyer also built a luxury liner in a Swedish shipyard. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Beyer founded an architecture firm in Leipzig. Sinceretiring, the designer has shown drawings in several exhibitions.

Estelle Blaschke

(b. 1976). Historian of photography. Lives and works in Berlin and Paris. After studying art history at the Humboldt-Universität Berlin, Blaschke worked for several years asproject director in the cultural section of UNESCO in Paris. In 2011 she completed herdissertation “Photography and the Commodification of Images: The Bettmann Archive andCorbis, 1924–2010” at the EHESS, Paris I Sorbonne. From 2009 to 2011 she was a predoctoralfellow at the Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte. Blaschke received scholarships from the DAAD, the EHESS, and the Deutsche Studienstiftung. Currently she is an associate member of the Laboratoire d’histoire visuelle contemporaine (Lhivic) at the EHESS in Paris.

Hans Otto Bräutigam

(b. 1931 in Völklingen an der Saar). After studying law and receiving his PhD, Bräutigam worked for the Foreign Ministry in Bonn from 1962; he later worked in the Federal Chancellery, and in 1982 as state secretary headed the Permanent Mission of the Federal Republic of Germany in the GDR. After a brief period as ambassador to the United Nations in New York (1989/90), Manfred Stolpe brought him to Brandenburg to serve as Ministerfor Justice and Federal and European Affairs, where he was active until 1999. Bräutigam lives in Berlin with his wife.

KP Brehmer

[Klaus Peter Brehmer] (1938–1997). Graphic artist, painter, and filmmaker. When Brehmer was completing his apprenticeship as a reproduction technician, he was already producing his first etchings. He continued studying art graphics until 1963 in Krefeld and at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf as well as at the Atelier Hayter, Paris. From 1964 he ran a studio in Berlin. 1971–97: Taught at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste, with a guest lectureship at the Hangzhou Academy of Art in the People’s Republic of China in 1987/88. Numerous exhibitions in Germany and abroad, including documenta 5 and 6; MoMA, New York; and Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. 1974: Together with Joseph Beuys, Hans Haacke, Klaus Staeck, and others, he organized the Art into Society – Society into Art exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London. 1998: Kunsthalle Museum Fridericianum presented a comprehensive posthumous retrospective. 2011: CAAC in Seville presented KP Brehmer: A TestExtending beyond the Action, which will travel to Raven Row, London, in 2014.

Noël Burch

(b. 1932 in San Francisco, Calif.). Critic and filmmaker. Through 1954: Studied at the Institut des hautes études cinèmatographiques in Paris. Although Burch is probablybest known for his theoretical texts, he has always considered himself a filmmaker and hasproduced more than twenty titles, mostly documentary films. His numerous publicationsinclude his first and best-known book, Theory of Film Practice, trans. Helen R. Lane (New York: Praeger, 1973), as well as To the Distant Observer: Form and Meaning in Japanese Cinema (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1979). 1967–72: Worked with Janine Bazin and André S. Labarthe on the series Cinéastes de notre temps and a number of other broadcasts. Burch was a cofounder and director of the alternative film school Institut de Formation Cinèmatographique, which combines theory and practice.

Haile Gabriel Dagne

(b. 1932). Associate Professor of Education. Lives and works in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 1960–66: Studied theology at the University of Athens as well as educational science, history, and sociology at the Freie Universität Berlin. Afterward taught at theUniversity of Addis Ababa. 1974–77: Ethiopian Minister of Culture. 1978–83: Ethiopian ambassador in Bonn. 1984–91: Resumed teaching at the University of Addis Ababa and served as vice president. Since then, Dagne has been active in research, publishing on Ethiopian education, reproductive health for young people (textbook), early marriage, history of traditional education, and the GDR’s involvement in Ethiopia (in German with English translation).

Harun Farocki

(b. 1944 in Neutitschein [now Nový Jičín], then a part of Czechoslovakia annexed by Germany). Artist. 1966–68: Studied at the Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin (West). 1966: Marriage to Ursula Lefkes. 1968: Birth of daughters Annabel Lee andLarissa Lu. 1974–84: Author and editor of the journal Filmkritik in Munich. 1998: Publication of Speaking about Godard/Von Godard sprechen (with Kaja Silverman). 1993–99: Visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley. 2001: Marriage to Antje Ehmann. Since 1966: More than a hundred productions for television or the cinema, including children’s television, documentary films, essay films, feature films. Since 1996: Works shown in numerous group and solo exhibitions in museums and galleries. 2007:Deep Play at documenta 12. 2006–11: Two years as visiting professor, then full professor at the Akademie für Bildende Künste, Vienna.

Mark Fisher

(b. 1968). Theorist and blogger. Author of Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? and editor of The Resistible Demise of Michael Jackson (both Zero Books, 2009). Fisheris cofounder of Cybernetic Culture Research and became famous for his blog, k-punk international. His texts have been published in such journals as The Wire (where he was deputy editor for one year), frieze, Film Quarterly, and Sight & Sound. Fisher is visiting fellow at the Centre for Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths, University of London; heteachers in the Master’s Program for Aural and Visual Cultures (Goldsmiths) and Music Culture (University of East London). His new book, Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures, will be published this year by Zero books.

Laure Giletti

(b. 1986 in Paris). Graphic designer. Lives and works in Arnhem (NL). After studyinggraphic design at the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs, in Paris, and the École régionale des beaux-arts, Valence (F), she is currently participating in Werkplaats Typografie. She is a member of castillo/corrales – Paraguay Press – Section7books – a collective-run gallery and bookstore in Paris with its own publishing house.

Kiluanji Kia Henda

(b. 1979 in Luanda, Angola). Photographer, visual artist. Lives and works in Luanda and Lisbon. Colonial history and the perception of modernity in Angola are constant themes in Henda’s photographs, which he also combines with film and video. Some of his most recent exhibitions: in 2011, Spacecraft Icarus 13: Narratives of Progress from Elsewhere, Basisvoor Actuele Kunst (BAK), Utrecht (NL); Experimental Station: Research and Artistic Phenomena, Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (CA2M), Madrid; Other Possible Worlds: Proposals on This Side of Utopia, NGBK, Berlin; in 2010, 2nd Trienal de Luanda, Angola; 29th Bienal de São Paulo; self-portrait as a white man, galleria Fonti, Naples; in 2007, Luanda Pop_Check List, African Pavilion, 52nd Venice Biennale.

Heinz Hirdina

(b. 1942). Design theorist and historian for GDR design. 1961–66: Studied philosophy, German, and cultural studies in Jena, Leipzig, and Berlin. 1968–79: Worked for form+zweck (as editor in chief from 1973 to 1979). 1973: Dr. phil. 1988: Habilitation. Up to 1986: Responsible for design publications at the Verlag der Kunst, Dresden. Since 1987: University teaching, as professor of the theory and history of design, Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weissensee from 1990 to 2005. Numerous book publications: Neues Bauen – Neues Gestalten: Das Neue Frankfurt/Die Neue Stadt (Dresden: Verlag der Kunst, 1984); Gestalten für die Serie: Design in der DDR, 1949–1985 (Dresden: Verlag der Kunst, 1988); “Es gibt keine Konkurrenz zu uns”: Design in Berlin, ed. with Helmut Staubach and Matthias Gubig (Berlin: Vice Versa, 2005).

Helgard Hirschfeld

(b. 1949). Trained archivist. Lives and works in Leipzig. 1977–81: Distance learning in archival studies at the Fachhochschule Potsdam. Since 1984: Director of company archive of the Leipziger Messe (Leipzig trade fair) with focus on archival and publicity work. Current projects include Intranet essays on the history of the fair, organization of in-house exhibitions and publications, and tours of the archive. In recent years she has cooperated on the following publications and television broadcasts: in 2011, Handelshof Leipzig, Neugestaltung eines Messepalastes and 100 Jahre Messpalast Specks Hof, Ereignisse und Erlebnisse, as well as 20 Jahre MDR auf der Leipziger Buchmesse and Damals war’s; in 2010, Bilderbogen, Leipziger Ansichtskartenserien von 1895–1945; in 2007, Messehostessen (TV). In collaboration with the Haus der Geschichte in Bonn, she prepared the history of the fair for the permanent exhibition Unsere Geschichte Deutschland seit 1945, whichreopened this year. Hirschfeld works closely with archives, museums, associations, and research communities and assists with chronicles of and special exhibitions on the history of the fair.

Sven Johne

(b. 1976). Artist. Lives and works in Berlin. Attended the master class of ProfessorTimm Rautert at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst, Leipzig. Johne works on the social and personal consequences of depopulating landscapes, lack of perspective, and failure and addresses them, for example, in his text-and-image cycle Following the Circus and the video Greatest Show on Earth. His works are represented in numerous national and international, public and private collections. Selected solo and group exhibitions: in 2009, Tears of the Eyewitness, Sprengel Museum, Hannover; in 2011, GreatestShow on Earth, KLEMM’S, Berlin; I’ve Dreamt About, MUDAM, Luxembourg; Street Life andHome Stories, Villa Stuck, Munich; Aschemünder/ Sammlung Götz, Haus der Kunst, Munich; in 2012, RAY: Fotografieprojekte, Frankfurt am Main; Made in Germany Zwei, Kestnergesellschaft, Kunstverein Hannover, Sprengelmuseum, Hannover. 2008: Sponsorship award of the Günther-Peill-Stiftung. 2009: Work scholarship from the Stiftung Kunstfonds Bonn. 2010: Karl-Schmitt-Rottluff Stipendium of the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf.

Matthias Judt 

(b. 1962). Economic historian. Lives and works in Berlin and Potsdam (Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung). Previous career stages took Judt to Berlin; Hannover; Washington, DC; Halle; Hamburg; Cambridge, Mass.; and Sachsenhausen. His research focuses on German economic history in the postwar period. He has participated in research projects on the history of so-called intellectual reparations after the Second World War, on the history of technology and industry in the area of office machines, on the comparative history of consumption (USA, FRG, and GDR), on the history of commercial coordination in the Ministry of Foreign Trade in the GDR, and on the development of an audiovisual learning center on the history of the Soviet special camp in Sachsenhausen. 1997: Edited DDR-Geschichte in Dokumenten. Judt has also contributed to several book projects chronicling German postwar history (published in 1999, 2001, and 2008). He is currently working on a book on the history of commercial coordination and on a new research project on structural chance in German retail trade since 1960.

Armin Linke

(b. 1966). Artist and photographer. Lives and works in Milan and Berlin. Linke combines different media to blur the boundary between fiction and reality. He works on a constantly growing archive on human life and a wide variety of landscapes, both natural and manmade. His multimedia installation on the contemporary landscape of the Alps received prizes at the 9th Biennale of Architecture in Venice and at the Graz Architecture Film Festival. Linke is a professor at the Hochschule für Gestaltung (HfG) Karlsruhe and a visitingprofessor in the department of art and design at the Università IUAV di Venezia as well as a research affiliate in the Visual Arts Program at MIT in Cambridge, Mass. 2010: Film Future Archaeology at the 67th Venice International Film Festival. 2012: Photographs in the Carlo Mollino: Maniera Moderna exhibition at the Haus der Kunst, Munich.

Valeria Malito

(b. 1984 in Verona, Italy). Design student. She received her bachelor’s degree in design from the Free University of Bolzano. She is currently studying in the department of art and design at the Università IUAV di Venezia. During her master’s studies she had the opportunity to participate in seminars at the Hochschule für Gestaltung (HfG) Karlsruhe as part of the Erasmus program. Her master’s thesis is on the history of visual communication, especially the Swiss graphic designer Lora Lamm, who worked in Milan in the 1950s and 1960s. She also does picture research for the project Lampedusa: The Day After (HfG). In collaboration with Katja Saar, and as part of a seminar at the HfG, she recentlyproduced the book Aus dem Archiv, which will be published by kodoji Press.

Paola De Martin

(b. 1965). Research associate at the ETH Zürich and lecturer at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste, the Hochschule Luzern Design&Kunst, and the Pädagogische Hochschule Zürich. After her training as a primary school teacher, textile designer, and entrepreneur, De Martin received a master’s degree in history. Her research focuses on the history of design in connection with economic and social history, postcolonial studies, and Switzerland. Her most recent projects revolve around the topic of social sustainability in theory andpractice at Swiss design universities. De Martin lives and works Zurich.

Katrin Mayer

(b. 1974). Artist. Lives and works in Berlin. Mayer’s works address the intersection ofart, research, architecture, display, and decor. She interweaves visual textures and surfaces immanent to the material with spatial and discursive contexts and issues relating to gender politics. She received her PhD from the Hochschule für bildende Künste in Hamburg with a thesis on this topic and has conceived stage sets and exhibition architecture for, among other projects, PostPornParlament, W139, Amsterdam, and Kampnagel, Hamburg. 2011: Living Archives, a cooperative project of the Van Abbemuseum, the KUB Arena, and the Kunsthaus Bregenz. 2012: Wir sind ein Bild aus der Zukunft: Nachrichtenvon Krise, Aufstand und Ausnahmezustand, HAU 3, Berlin. Selected exhibitions: in 2010, seams and notches, Galerie RECEPTION, Berlin; in 2011, Telling Textures, Dolores, Ellen de Bruijne Projects, Amsterdam; Verdeckte Adressaten, Platform 3 and Weisse Rose Stiftung, Munich; Anfang gut, alles gut, KUB Arena, Kunsthaus Bregenz; so as to form surfaces, Kunstverein Düsseldorf; in 2012, Lieber Aby Warburg – was tun mit Bildern? Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Siegen.

Doreen Mende

(b. 1976). Curator. In her practicebased PhD research in Curatorial Knowledge at Goldsmiths in London, Mende addresses the politics of exhibiting in a discussion of works by the Dziga Vertov Group, Jean Genet, and the East German photographer Horst Sturm. In that context she has been as a consultant for UNESCO Office Ramallah and was a fellow atthe Research Center of the Arab Image Foundation in Beirut (LB) in 2010/11. In 2010 she and Markus Heinzelmann received the Justus Bier Preis für Kuratoren for their exhibition with Candida Höfer. Mende is a founding member of the publication series DISPLAYER at the Hochschule für Gestaltung (HfG) Karlsruhe – Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie. She is currently working on other exhibitions for the CAAC in Seville, the Bregenzer Kunstverein, and Raven Row in London. Since 2010, she has also been a theory mentor at the Dutch Art Institute.

Reinhard Mende

(1930-2012). Photographer. Mende acquired his first camera on May 12, 1951 while he still worked as a mill builder until the early 1960's. 1967–90: Freelance photographer in theGDR, and then in the FRG until 2007. 1963: Bronze medal in the 2nd Fotopresse-Schau ofthe GDR, the only amateur photographer to receive an award. Participated in numerousexhibitions in Germany and abroad. Offer from Neues Deutschland, but Mende rejected itbecause it required joining the SED. For the same reason he quit his job at Rat des Kreises (district council) Altenburg where he worked in the department of culture for the years 1962–66. Active for decades doing reportage commissioned by the advertising department of Elektrischer Konsumgüter Suhl, with headquarters in Leipzig, and the trademark association AKA ELECTRIC, he was commissioned by the Ministry of culture of the GDR to do photojournalism on, among other things, the Jugendweltfestspiele der DDR (1973; the GDR’s World Festival ofYouth). In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Mendewas the set photographer on various GDR television productions. Until 1989, he also documented the opening and exhibitions of the Lindenau-Museum in Altenburg. The year 1989was a turning point also in his activities as a photographer: Mende quickly acquired new camera and laboratory equipment (with support from his brothers in the FRG). At the age of sixty, he learned color photography on his own in order to remain professionally active under the new conditions. Numerous commissions followed for book and CD productions on the history, culture, and landscape of the Altenburger Land.

Olaf Nicolai

(b. 1962 in Halle). Artist. Lives and works in Berlin. Studied literature and linguisticsin Leipzig, Vienna, and Budapest and received his PhD in 1992 with a thesis on the WienerGruppe. In parallel he received a diploma from the Fachschule für Angewandte Kunst inSchneeberg in 1988. Numerous international solo exhibitions: in 1998, Watari-Um MuseumTokyo; in 2001, migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich; in 2004, Kunstmuseum Thun; in2006, Kunstraum Dornbirn; in 2007, Leonhardi Museum Dresden. Group exhibitions: in 1997, documenta X, Kassel; in 2001 and 2005, Venice Biennale; in 2002, 4th Gwangju Biennale, Korea, and the Biennale of Sydney; in 2008, Manifesta 7; as well as at institutions such as MoMA, New York; MIT in Cambridge, Mass.; and Moderna Museet, Stockholm. In addition to prizes such as that of the City of Wolfsburg (2002), Nicolai has received several scholarships: in 1997/98, Villa Massimo; in 1998, PS1, New York; in 2000, IASPIS, Stockholm; in 2008, Villa Aurora, Los Angeles.

Katja Saar

(b. 1984 in Cottbus). Design student. After completing secondary school, Saar received the Jugendförderpreis für Bildende Kunst – Spree Neisse Kreis and completed training as a theater painter at the Stadttheater Freiburg im Breisgau. After working for several months as a theater painter, she began studying communication design at the Hochschule für Gestaltung (HfG) Karlsruhe in 2008. In collaboration with Valeria Malito, and as part of a seminar at the HfG, she recently produced the book Aus dem Archiv, which will be published by kodoji Press.

Allan Sekula

(b. 1951 in Erie, Penn.). Artist and theorist. Since the early 1970s, Sekula’s works ofphotographic sequences, texts, slide shows, and sound recordings have been closely related to cinema and sometimes even reference specific films. Apart from a few video works in the 1970s and early 1980s, his first major film, Tsukiji—“symphony of a city,” which takes place at one of Tokyo’s enormous fish markets—was completed in 2001. Sekula’s books include Photography against the Grain (1984), Fish Story (1995), Dismal Science (1999), Performance under Working Conditions (2003), Titanic’s Wake (2003), and Polonia and Other Fables (2009). Their subject matter ranges from the theory and history of photography to studies of family life under the control of the military-industrial complex, or, like Fish Story, they explore the world of the maritime economy. The Forgotten Space is a film essay on Fish Story.

Kerstin Stakemeier

(b. 1975). Art historian. Lives and works in Berlin. After receiving her diploma in political science from the Freie Universität Berlin, Stakemeier earned an MA in art history from University College London and in 2010 received her PhD there as well. 2009–10: Scholarship at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht to research realism in (contemporary) art. She has worked for, among others, the Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel, and the Kunstverein Hamburg; she has written for such media as Texte zur Kunst and Artforum.com and is currently active at the video forum of the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (NBK). In late 2012, Entkunstung: Artistic Models for the End of Art will be published by b_books in their polypen series. 

The Otolith Group

This collective from London is an organization led by two London-born artists, Anjalika Sagar (b. 1968) and Kodwo Eshun (b. 1967). Founded in 2002, the group studies the image in contemporary culture by means of film and video, artists’ texts, workshops, curatedexhibitions, publications, and other public platforms. The Otolith Group is dedicated toresearch-oriented projects on the legacy and potential of artist-led proposals on the document, the essay film, the archive, the medium of sound, and “speculative futures” and science fictions. Nationally and internationally, the group has used its works to develop platforms for the production of the experimental in the practice of the moving image. The Otolith Group has exhibited single-channel works in the United Kingdom and abroad, among them Otolith I (2003), Otolith II (2007), Nervus Rerum (2008), and Otolith III (2009). In addition, they have produced a series of installations, including Inner Time of Television (2007), featuring thirteen monitors (Destroy Athens, 1st Athens Biennale). Participation in relevant art festivals and biennials, such as 2006: Tate Triennial; 2008: 7th Shanghai Biennial and Manifesta 8; 2010: 29th Bienal de São Paulo. One of its most importantsolo exhibitions was Thoughtform, Museum of Contemporary Art, Barcelona, 2010. The OtolithGroup was nominated for the Turner Prize that same year.

Philip Ursprung

(b. 1963 in Baltimore, Md.). Professor of art and architectural history at the ETH Zürich. Ursprung studied art history, history, and German in Geneva, Vienna, and Berlin. He has taught at the HdK Berlin; Columbia University, New York; the Universität Zürich; and theBarcelona Institute of Architecture. He was curator at the Kunsthalle Palazzo in Liestal and guest curator at the Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Basel and the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal. He is the author of Grenzen der Kunst: Allan Kaprow und das Happening, Robert Smithson und die Land Art (Munich, 2003) and editor of Herzog & de Meuron: Natural History (Montreal and Baden, 2002). He wrote the introduction and conducted the interviews for Studio Olafur Eliasson: An Encyclopedia (Cologne, 2008). He recently published Die Kunst der Gegenwart: 1960 bis heute (Munich, 2010).

Malte Wandel

(b. 1982). Photographer. Lives and works in Munich and Cologne. Between 2003 and 2010 Wandel studied photography at the Fachhochschule Dortmund with Susanne Brügger; he spent a semester abroad at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste with André Gelpke and Thomas Weski in 2007. Since 2011 he has been pursuing further studies in media arts at the Kunsthochschule für Medien in Cologne. His recent works include Einheit, Arbeit, Wachsamkeit: Die DDR in Mosambik (2010), Official (2010), Sein oder Haben (2009). His exhibitions in 2011 included Vattenfall Fotopreis, C/O Berlin; unheimlich vertraut: Bilder vom Terror, C/O Berlin; Einheit, Arbeit, Wachsamkeit, Krefelder Kunstverein; BFF-Förderpreis 2011, Haus der Wirtschaft Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart. Works on view in 2012 thus far, both in Munich: Einheit, Arbeit, Wachsamkeit, Galerie Jo van de Loo, and Official Forum, Stadtmuseum.2011: 2nd prize in the Vattenfall Fotopreis für junge narrative Fotografie and the BFF-Förderpreis.

Thomas Weski

(b. 1953 in Hannover). Curator. 1987–91: Siemens Fotoprojekt at the Siemens Kulturprogramm, Munich. 1992–2000: Curator for photography and media at the Sprengel Museum Hannover. From 2000: Chief curator at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne. From 2003: Chiefcurator and then deputy director since 2008 at the Haus der Kunst, Munich. Since 2009: Foundation Professor for Cultures of the Curatorial, Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst, Leipzig. Weski has been responsible for more than eighty photography exhibitions, including co-curated projects: in 2000, How You Look At It: Fotografien des 20. Jahrhunderts, Sprengel Museum Hannover; in 2003, Cruel & Tender, Tate Modern, London, and Museum Ludwig, Cologne; in 2008, William Eggleston: The Democratic Camera, Whitney Museum of American Art. A solo exhibition by Andreas Gursky, curated by Weski, was shown in Munich, Istanbul, Sharjah, Moscow, and Melbourne. In 2012, Weski curated a survey exhibition of Thomas Ruff at the Haus der Kunst, Munich.

Christopher Williams

(b. 1956) lives and works in Cologne, Amsterdam, and Los Angeles. Williams studied at the California Institute of Arts under John Baldessari and Douglas Huebler and has become one of the most influential conceptual artists of his generation. In his work he pursues acritical investigation of the medium of photography and, in more general terms, structures of representation and classification in industrial culture. He has been professor at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf since 2008. His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions in several institutions, such as the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam (1997), Secession in Vienna (2005), Kunsthalle Zurich, and the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Bologna (both 2007). Most recently his work was shown at the Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden (2010), Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, and Museum Dhoendt-Daenens in Deurle (both 2011). Williams’ work is part of major collections, including the MOCA, Los Angeles; the Ludwig Museum, Cologne; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Christopher Williams has been nominated for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2012.